North Korea’s nuclear test

Are you listening, America?

EARS shut to the impending chorus of international condemnation, North Korea conducted its third nuclear test on February 12th. It said the detonation was of a “smaller and light” atomic bomb that was different from its previous two, and that it had “great explosive power”. Figuratively speaking, the blast may have been meant to resonate loudest in Washington, DC.

Judging by the seismic activity that was detected near North Korea’s Punggye-ri testing site, experts said the blast may have been marginally more powerful than that created by previous tests, in October 2006 and May 2009. Data from the U.S. Geological Survey put the tremor at a magnitude of 4.9, bigger than either of those caused previously. South Korean officials said it may have been 6,000-7,000 tons in TNT equivalent—again, bigger than in the past.

But it is not so much the blast’s brute power as the words “smaller and light” that are most worrying. That is because international analysts suspect that the North is testing a bomb sufficiently miniaturised to fit on its recently launched Unha-3 rocket, which successfully put a satellite into orbit in December. If the bosses in Pyongyang can master the critical skills required to direct a re-entry, the boffins say it is possible that such a rocket could be used to deliver a small nuclear warhead to the United States.

In coming days and weeks technical experts will be trying to analyse what fissile material was used. There was no hard evidence provided in North Korea’s confirmation of the blast. They did boast of having developed a “diversified” programme, which may suggest North Korea has now tested highly enriched uranium, as well as plutonium. The test would have taken place in a sealed tunnel in a mountainside, so it may well prove impossible to tell which material was used (in 2006, evidence of plutonium is said to have escaped; in 2009 there was no conclusive leakage). Any suggestion that it is enriched uranium fuelled the blast will add to the concerns. James Acton of the Washington, DC-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace wrote recently that North Korea’s uranium programme may enable it to build a significantly bigger arsenal than it was thought to have, which could explain why it would have been used in the third test.

In its announcement, KCNA, the North Korean news agency, said that the test was a reaction against American hostility, especially in response to the December satellite launch. Narushige Michishita of the Tokyo-based National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies reckons that the primary aim of the nuclear test was to bring America back to bargaining talks with North Korea. He said the timing may be aimed at catching the attention of a new Obama administration. It also occurred just before South Korea’s president-elect, Park Geun-hye, is due to take office, on February 25th. Mr Michishita surmises the test’s timing might make it easier for her to shrug it off in the long term.

But he acknowledged that in the short run North Korea’s relations with most foreign nations will freeze up. Ms Park was swift to condemn the test. China, which has long been North Korea’s strongest ally, had already issued not-so-veiled warnings to the North against conducting it.

The North Korean regime appears to be regularly underestimating the strength of international feeling against its nuclear programme. If North Korea's apoplectic reaction was any gauge, the strong condemnation its December rocket launch drew from the UN Security Council (UNSC) caught it by surprise. The UNSC is scheduled to discuss the regime’s latest antics early on February 12th in New York. South Korea’s foreign minister, Kim Sung-hwan, and America’s new secretary of state, John Kerry, had agreed beforehand to take "swift and unified" action in the event of another nuclear test.

The trouble is, the outside world has almost run out of the normal options for curbing the North’s nuclear ambitions: there are not many more sanctions it can impose. As our cover leader argued this week, efforts to stop the nuclear programme have “pretty much failed”. Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s fledgling dynast, is unlikely ever to give up his nuclear-weapons programme so long as it remains as his only claim to influence.

What makes you so sure? Say Iraq had tested a nuclear device, it is quite possible policy makers would take a chance and try to bum rush Saddam before the device is weaponized, and/or further developed/matured to be placed on a missile as a warhead.
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And the Gulf powers as well as Israel could likely be big proponents of such an action in the background. Considering wikileaks indicated much pressure placed on Americans from certain Gulf political leaders to attack Iran, it is not such a crazy scenario.

It's easy to anwser that question, sir. If NK doesn't have nuclear weapons, it can only be protect by China, maybe Russia. But China is developing fast, NK will no longer be China's sword. Nuclear weapons can be NK's counters against Wset world. NK wll become the next Lybia,Syria without nuclear weapons.

PLease:
is the US targeting its civilians like Syria and Libya?
Is the US president grabbing power like the muslim brotherhood in Egypt? well...
Is the US starving its civilians like North Korea?
Does the US have ethnic cleanings like Africa?

You know that China borders 14 nations, many of them "capitalistic?"
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China is not a communist country, the name of the CCP not withstanding. It looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, so why do otherwise smart people keep on paying attention to the faded lettering on the side that says "cat?"
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China is afraid of a refugee crisis, not South Korea or the United States.

"...what are Japanese media saying about how to respond to NK Nuclear Test?"
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This is from Japan Times:
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"On Tuesday, China’s foreign minister called North Korea’s ambassador in for a dressing down and demanded Pyongyang cease making further threats, in a show of Beijing’s displeasure over its ally’s latest nuclear test. Yang Jiechi delivered a “stern representation” to Ji Jae Ryong and expressed China’s “strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition” to the test, the ministry said in a statement posted to its website. It did not say if Ji made any response."
.http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/02/14/asia-pacific/norths-nuclear-...

The nuclear test shows what a rogue regime the North Korea is!!! the Kim is definitely the empire of the fedual country. It is unstable, the whole country shows the personality of that fat man which is a brute fact of North Korea's people. I don't think the Kim do not predict the reaction of the international society, especially the U.S. and China. Why it is still doing so?? Maybe the country inside have so much conflict, the poor economic which is definitely the determined factor of a long run. The people do not have enough to eat and wear will be a rough power to the foundation of the country, so the kim loves the army, the weapons which can protect his dynasty.
But unfortunately, no matter what he/they does/do, the country will be collapsed at last, because it is a regime against the trend of history.

the chinese may hate it, the japanese may use it as some pretext to arm itself as nuke power (that's within its reach, but not allowed by japns surrender constitution), the russian may not like it, the south koreans may secretly admiring it, and the us may stealthly laugh that the destabilisation in the area worked.
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but right or wrong for north korea, would you say it did the proper thing for itself?
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sanction all you like, and they may starve to death, but nobody is about to bomb them now.

Economy is another thing than politics. as u said, the so called democratic countries are investing to China, are helping an evil government to get more money there. Why dont you as a citizen from democratic country use your veto to stop that, to destroy the government of communist party? Why dont you condemn it? Why dont you condemn India,Pakistan,Israel, as they exercise nuclear explode? why USA,Russia,UK,France, and China are permitted to own nuclear weapons? If you say, NK invaded SK. Please find out a history books about UK, and Japan. From what a reason you can assert that they are peace keepers?
Frankly speaking I m not pro or con the NK. I just want to say, that a country has the right to develop any kind of weapon to protect itself. Even NK, though one said it is a rogue country. But you need to know and understand, in their eyes, USA and Japan are even worse. If you say that is a propaganda, then you fool yourself. Watch on your TV, you find only negative news about China and communist parties regimes. whose brain is washed?

Well the US, Japan and Europe overall are major trading partners of China. Market access to, and investments and knowledge transfers from those "liars and rogues" made China's development possible up until pretty recently.

@TAJARTALE.May i answer to your question:what is the strategy of NK having nukes?To put them on the top of their ICBM and blackmail the entire world,US and Europe included,like they are blackmailing now Japan and SK.And live the happy life of the mobsters forever at our expenses.This is going to happen within some year.My humble opinion is:NUKE THEM NOW on strategic targets like high military commands,the parliament,the president'a house,all the nuclear facilities,all the power plants:do it suddenly without warning.Be ready to nuke the rest of military facilties,barracks included.Use small nukes(1 to 5 kiloton).The best northern korean is the dead one.This is the lesson teached by them in 63 years of history and one war by them triggered that took 2 million lives

What is the strategy of NK having a nuclear weapon? In what way can it be used? It could be sold and used by a third party, but what good would this achieve for the Kim dynasty? NK can already shell Seoul out of existence without such a weapon, so it doesn't seem to offer any kind of defensive advantage. And the moment there was even the slightest hint of an actual NK-branded weapon being used offensively on a Western power, the entire Korean peninsula would surely be done for, allies or no. So what is the plan?

Pakistan and India were all too excited about getting nukes: what good did it do them? They are perhaps slightly less likely to attack each other, but Pakistan now lives under the constant fear (however unfounded) of US invasion to secure the very weapons meant to guarantee security. So much for being a world power...

Maybe I'm being dumb here, but I just don't see how these weapons can ever actually be employed. And since everyone seems to know that already, what's the point in developing them?

You cannot stop Iran and NK sharing their nuclear knowledge with one another and whichever other anti-Western state wants to join the nuclear club. They are not, and never will be, signatories to the NPT.
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But you cannot do a preemptive strike, because that might initiate the nuclear war you are trying to prevent.
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The nuclear shield is an uncertain defence against multiple incoming nukes...Israel's 'Iron Dome' only stopped 70% of incoming rockets, and that might be an approximate measure of the effectiveness of any 'shield'.
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There are no easy answers: a pre-emptive strike against NK would almost certainly lead to war on the Korean peninsula, which might suck in China and the US.
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I have been around a good long while, and these are the most dangerous times I can remember.

If Japan wants nukes, then it should expect to never, ever be able to sit on the UN Security Council as a permanent member. Not only China, but also South Korea, a Coffee Club member, will prevent that with even more vehemence than now.
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Also, if Japan wants nukes, then South Korea should also be allowed to have nukes. As for where the SK nukes will be aimed, that would be interesting to observe.

North Korea will continue to be China's surrogate to challenge U.S.'s hegemony in Asia. In a war of resources, North Korea is a very cheap weapon for China- for the price of supplying one of its poorest provinces, China can prevent North Korea from collapsing and menacing that area of the world while the U.S. spends trillions simultaneously to maintain its stability. No amount of sanctions imposed by U.N. can stop North Korea as long as the Chinese continue to stealthily supply North Korea through their shared border.

This stalemate between the U.S. and North Korea will continue until North Koreans realize that the Chinese are laughing all the way to bank while the North Koreans are the equivalent of illegal alien labors assembling on the parking lots of Home Depot.

Wanna find lots of uneducated trolls? Come to Economist.
They believe that North Korea is threatening them, but 95 % of them probably can not even find it on the map.
At the same time the "interests of peace" protects the country, which for the last 60 years caused and started at least 50 big and small wars and military conflicts.
Iran has become too tough? Let's make the threat from Korea!
Mainstream media provoked and raised panic on this, and it's obviously that such panic is sponsored by arms exporters. It seems that demands in investing in the military-industrial sector, after the printing press, is one of last ways to keep the U.S. budget balance afloat.

The presence of tens of thousand of American troops in South Korea is the ONLY reason China maintains any semblance of support for the North. China's interest is for Korea to be run by Korans, not the US, and not the Japaneses, this is true in the 16th century, in the 20th century and in the 21st century.
In other words, if South Koreans wants to see a unified Korea, they need to grow a pair and take control of their own country back from the Americans, until that happens there's no reason for China allow what is essentially an American colony to get anywhere close to its borders